It is a School Behavioral Health Threat Assessment. Sounds pretty official and important and specific. An SBHTA is all of those things. In theory anyway. In practice, there is considerable variation in how SBHTAs are conducted and who conducts them.
The National Threat Assessment Center has published reports on the value of threat assessments in schools and in targeted violence prevention for decades. NTAC offers training, case consultation, guidance and resources to law enforcement, mental health professionals, school safety personnel and other stakeholders. What
Like School Emergency Operations Plans, there are no federal requirements for SBHTAs. There are no federal “rules” or policies that schools must follow. Schools may choose to or choose not to use SBHTAs, determine who is and is not on threat assessment teams, conduct SBHTAs however they choose, set their own threshold for what is or isn’t a credible threat and determine the interventions to address behavior/threats.
Schools/districts set the parameters for who can make a referral for an assessment, how threats and/or concerning behavior are reported, who decides if an SBHTA is necessary. Schools are responsible for training staff and members of the school community. Schools decide who will facilitate training and select the training curriculum.
Hence the considerable variation.
As far as educating the school community, school typically give vague instructions on “anonymous” reporting systems. There is little if any information about bystanders, concerning behavior or what happens in a threat assessment. That needs to change.
Below is a trifold brochure that gives basic information for students, parents and others in the school community.
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Let me know if you have questions.